In the conventional oven or toaster oven, the heating elements are fixed in location and the heating compartment is fixed in size. When the user uses the oven to cook a thick food item such as, for example, a chicken or a thin food item such as a slice of bread to be toasted, the distance between the heating element and the food item differs due to the thickness differences among food items. Normally, it takes more time to cook a thin or small food item using an oven with a large heating compartment than it does an oven with a small heating compartment.
One example of the above is the ovens ordinarily called toaster ovens which have a relatively small heating compartment normally used to cook small food items and including the toasting of thin items like bread. Even here, the bread toasting time is normally longer in the toaster oven than in the usual toaster. This is due to the heating element or elements in the toaster being farther removed from the bread compared to the distance between the heating elements and the bread in the ordinary bread toaster. It would be desirable, therefore, to be able to reposition the heating element in an electrical food heating or cooking appliance so as to bring the heating element close to the food item irrespective of its size.
In addition electric ovens, such as toaster ovens, can be unable to achieve, in smaller food items, the desired surface characteristics of such items cooked by other means such as, for example, toasting, broiling, or grilling, by conventional toasters, oven broilers or grills.
There is a further shortcoming of heating or cooking a small or thin food item in an oven or heating appliance that has an interior volume much greater than the item that is to be heated or cooked. The volumetric space of the oven that is to be brought to temperature is much greater than necessary for the small or thin food item. The item could be heated or cooked more quickly and efficiently if the heating chamber could be reduced in volume about the item to be heated or cooked.